I. Ahmad, K. Javed and A. Sattar

Abstract

    Different cereals were examined for their total and phytate phosphorus contents along with bioavailability. Bioassay was conducted on 18 weeks old cockerels of White Leghorn breed. They were starved for 24 hours and were forced-fed 30 grams of prepared single feed stuff and droppings were collected at regular time intervals. Total phosphorus contents for rice (polished), wheat, barley, maize (red), maize (white) and sorghum (white) were 0.16, 0.28, 0.25, 0.24, 0.23 and 0.28 percent, respectively which contained 0.04, 0.18, 0.15, 0.17, 0.18 and 0.24 percent phytate phosphorus, respectively. The bioavailability values for these feed stuffs were 66.41, 64.04, 61.25, 53.46, 47.06 and 41.26 percent, respectively. The phytate phosphorus contents were negatively correlated (P<0.01) with available phosphorus.

Key words:  Bioavailability, phosphorus, phytate, cereals.